Wednesday, August 27, 2014

3:11 PM

The lost ballots in Green County swung the totals in the 17th SD Dem primary by a net of 28 votes in favor of Pat Bomhack, who finished the original count seven votes behind Ernie Wittwer.

Green County discovered it was missing 110 ballots from the city of Monroe that were included in the county canvass but could not be found for the recount that was ordered in the race.

Wittwer's total dropped 40 votes with the missing ballots not included in the recount, while Bomhack lost 12. While the content of the missing ballots is impossible to determine, it appears a significant number of them did not include a vote in the Dem Senate primary.

Clerk Michael Doyle said the board of canvass this afternoon certified its results without the missing ballots.

The results will now be sent to the Government Accountability Board, and some observers are already predicting the race will end up in court to resolve how to handle the missing ballots.